A brutal jobs report led to Donald Trump attacking the chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, again on Wednesday — just after the president had hailed the U.S.’s “best May in 30 years.”
The analysis from ADP found that the U.S. private sector added only 37,000 jobs in April, the lowest number in two years. Trump, in response, took to Truth Social and urged him to cut interest rates once again.
“ADP NUMBER OUT!!! ‘Too Late Powell’ must now LOWER THE RATE. He is unbelievable!!! Europe has lowered NINE TIMES!” the president raged.
The jobs report from ADP comes two days ahead of the release of official numbers from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which are expected to be much higher due to the different methods of calculation used by the two entities. BLS’s numbers are watched more closely by traders.
Meanwhile, the president’s reaction to the news closely followed his own early-morning all-caps boast on Truth Social that the US supposedly had “the best May in 30 years.”
The quick response by the president is a sign that his frustrations with Powell have not eroded at all. The White House reassured reporters and economists that the president was not considering Powell’s firing earlier this year after it was reported that Trump was talked down from doing so by two Cabinet officials.
He called the Federal Reserve chair a “major loser” in April and blamed him for insufficient interest rate cuts. Powell, in early May, joined other officials at the Fed in declaring the economy’s foundations solid while acknowledging that “risks of higher unemployment and higher inflation have risen.”
Like many, Powell linked those risks directly to the president’s imposition of 10 percent tariffs on all US imports and higher so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on many US trading partners.
“It’s really not clear at all what we should do,” Powell told reporters at a press conference, adding that the tariffs could “generate a rise in inflation, a slowdown in economic growth, and an increase in unemployment".
“For the time being, we are well positioned to wait for greater clarity before considering any adjustments to our policy stance,” he added.
These statements unsurprisingly infuriated the president, who along with White House and Cabinet officials has fought back against analyses and predictions from economists suggesting that the US’s new trade barriers will slow economic growth and risk throwing the country into recession. Major retailers like Amazon added to those fears with public statements blaming the tariffs for price hikes on consumer goods.
At the same time, the president was faced with the news of the US dollar slipping to its lowest value in three years.
“‘Preemptive Cuts’ in Interest Rates are being called for by many,” Trump wrote at the time. “With Energy Costs way down, food prices (including Biden’s egg disaster!) substantially lower, and most other ‘things’ trending down, there is virtually No Inflation.”
“With these costs trending so nicely downward, just what I predicted they would do, there can almost be no inflation, but there can be a SLOWING of the economy unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW,” he continued. “Mr. Too Late” is apparently the president’s latest attempt at branding one of his perceived political enemies with a nickname.
“Europe has already ‘lowered’ seven times,” Trump’s April rant about Powell continued. “Powell has always been ‘To Late,’ except when it came to the Election period when he lowered in order to help Sleepy Joe Biden, later Kamala, get elected. How did that work out?”
As the markets repeatedly reacted with fear in response to the president’s tariffs, the president has backed off on some of his bolder challenges. This week, he announced that the UK would be spared a planned 50% tariff on steel and aluminum imports. Last week, he delayed plans to impose 50% tariffs on all imports from the European Union after a call with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.
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